Period #1
1491-1607
On a North American continent controlled by American Indians, contact among the peoples of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa created a new world.
#1:
Identity /
  • Allowed people trapped in Europe to be able to create and make new identities for themselves, which was an option they did not have before.
  • Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans were incredibly advanced and many of the tribes throughout the Americas were incredibly specified and varyingly different from one another. Before this time, Native Americans weren’t bundled up into this mass identity of, “Indian,” and rather identified themselves as of different nationalities or city-states (tribes).

#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology / THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE:
  • Europeans shared deadly diseases with Natives and killed off many of them
  • Tribes on atlantic coast were pressured into trading with Europeans and thus became dependant on fur trading
  • Christianity was pressed upon native cultures by Europeans
  • Plains indians also adapted to the new european culture and started the use of guns and horses
  • Work was divided by gender in both native and european cultures

#3:
Peopling /
  • The atlantic slave trade allowed america to become much more diversitized with africanamerican slaves being added to the population among white settlers and diminishing native americans
  • As more europeans settled in the americas, more native americans died from the diseases they brought over
  • Much of the native americans territory were taken away by the settlers as well

#4:
Politics & Power /
  • Spanish conquistadors conquered the South American cultures because the Spanish rulers desired more land
  • Conquistadors gained titles and land
  • Cortes conquered the Aztecs with brutal force and diseases
  • The Europeans had power over the Native Americans because of their superior technology and the diseases they inadvertently spread
  • Plains Indians gained power due to the guns and horses they gained through trade with the Europeans
  • The Atlantic Coast and Ohio River Valley tribes became dependent on European fur trade

#5: America & the World /
  • The rest of the world began to flock and compete gaining more and more land - conquering it from the Native Americans as they went.

#6: Environment & Geography /
  • Doctrine of discovery stated that any land that was not christian was there for catholic rulers to take

#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture /
  • Strong sense of spirituality for both the Natives and for the Europeans
  • Labor was divided by gender
  • No “private property” for Native Americans
  • Europeans had a patrilineal culture; Native Americans had a matrilineal culture

Period #2 Max Rosgen and Gavin Honig
1607–1754
Europeans and American Indians maneuvered and fought for dominance, control, and security in North America, and distinctive colonial and native societies emerged.
#1:
Identity /
  • Rich upper class in the south = slave holding
  • First great awakening
  • Americans and British fighting for colonial power
  • Scottish, Irish and German immigrants
  • Ethnic and religious pluralism
  • Less patriarchy and control in children's lives

#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology /
  • Rise of subsistence farming in Northern colonies
  • Cultivation of cash crops in South creates aristocratic, slave society
  • Tension with other European countries causes Navigation act to be implemented
  • 1600-1750 Consumer revolution creates higher British imports
  • British dominance over Trans-Atlantic slave trade, sugar colonies

#3:
Peopling /
  • Slave trade, lots of african slaves were brought to the caribbean.
  • In the south 50% of population of was an african slave
  • Increased immigration from non british nations → German, east european
  • Indentured servants mostly irish and scottish
  • Indian tribes retreat into the ‘interior’
  • Large wealth divide and cultural separation

#4:
Politics & Power /
  • House of Burgesses (1619) in Virginia, early American government.
  • Dominion of England establishes central control over the colonies in the North.
  • Salutary neglect allowed for colonial assemblies to meet, creating tension in the colonial government system.
  • Bacon’s Rebellion 1675 showed disagreement of Indian politics.
  • Systems of self-government and local representative institution created a self-rule ideology that set the scene for future conflict.

#5: America & the World /
  • Americans had land disputes with other nations like Netherlands and Spain
  • England gained control over the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and sugar cane economy

#6: Environment & Geography /
  • Tobacco industry stagnates, less tobacco farming
  • Interior was unexplored.

#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture /
  • Christians seek religious asylum in AMerica, Catholics and Puritans
  • Anglicans set up churches and Puritan congregationalists set up their religious institutions in New England
  • Religious dissidents settle in Rhode Island
  • Great Awakening establishes more personal relationship with God, revives interest in religious participation.
  • Protestants practice religious tolerance
  • German and Scots-Irish pietism evolves in Middle-Atlantic societies.

Period #3
1754–1800
British imperial attempts to reassert control over its colonies and the colonial reaction to these attempts produced a new American republic, along with struggles over the new nation’s social, political, and economic identity.
#1:
Identity /
  • Declaration of independence- 1776
  • Ratification of the Constitution
  • Federalist Papers- written by James Madison & Alexander Hamilton, called for a strong central government → outlined Federalist beliefs
  • Stamp Act → ¨No taxation without representation!¨ Americans were calling for equal rights as British citizens

#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology / French & Indian War- led to the imposition of revenue taxes by the British → abandoned salutary neglect
Stamp Act (1765) - Parliamentś first move to tax in order for revenue as opposed to regulate trade
Shay’s Rebellion-sparked by economic frustrations of farmers due to high taxes and debt
#3:
Peopling / Increase in migration to the US strained relations with the native people
#4:
Politics & Power / Boston Tea Party- colonists destroyed chests of tea rather than pay tax
Coercive Acts- Parliamentary response to the Boston Tea Party → colonists lost a lot of rights as a result
Federalist Papers-supporting the Federalist Party and ratification of the Constitution
#5: America & the World / Not much of a relation with the world militarily, politically, or economically other than Britain. Politically and economically involved with Britain during this time
#6: Environment & Geography / More land development and towns created. More westward expansion
Treaty of Paris-established America’s new boundaries
#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture / Independence
Common Sense- Thomas Paineś pamphlet called for independence from Britain, favored Republican government
Period #4
1800–1848
The new republic struggled to define and extend democratic ideals in the face of rapid economic, territorial, and demographic changes.
#1:
Identity /
  • Second Great Awakening: personal piety over schooling
  • Abolitionism:
  • William Lloyd Garrison ¨immediate emancipation¨
  • Fredrick Douglas ¨equal civil rights for blacks¨
  • Womenś Rights
  • Temperance and abolitionism gave women a chance to have a voice in public reform
  • Seneca Falls Convention

#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology /
  • Louisiana Purchase occurred, leading to greater migration and more resources
  • Americans began to reap benefits from the Industrial Revolution (ie Railroads) helped increase American productivity and helped create more factory jobs
  • Growing National Economy

#3:
Peopling /
  • Migration to Louisiana Purchase Territory (Mississippi River to Rocky Mountains)
  • American population more than doubled to nearly 10 mil. people
  • Lots of European immigrants who were escaping overcrowded homelands
  • Immigration of Irish and German sparked nativism movement and anti-Catholic sentiment (Know Nothing Party and Temperance Movement)

#4:
Politics & Power /
  • Jefferson Presidency (1800- 1809) : Election of 1800 (Jefferson, Burr, and Adams)
  • Missouri Compromise (all states above 36 30 line are free)
  • Laissez-faire under Jefferson

#5: America & the World /
  • War of 1812 (British v. America due to trade restrictions, impressment of American people into British navy)
  • Mexican American War (Manifest Destiny spurred American war hawk sentiment in order to gain land. They wanted to expand democracy)

#6: Environment & Geography /
  • Urbanization
  • Gaining more territory (Louisiana Purchase and Mexican-American War)
  • Pioneer families manipulated the earth for self gain (farming, fishing, raising livestock, invention of the steel plow, sickles, scythes)

#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture /
  • Second Great Awakening: religious revival movement
  • Utopian Communities which brought about experimental societies that held differing values from the social norm
  • Temperance, backlash of the rising popularity of drinking which advocated abstinence from alcohol

Period #5
1844–1877
As the nation expanded and its population grew, regional tensions, especially over slavery, led to a civil war — the course and aftermath of which transformed society.
#1:
Identity /
  • Expansion westward makes U.S. more powerful through resources
  • Attempt to integrate African Americans into American culture
  • Integration of immigrants (Irish and German, majority Catholic)

#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology / - American (Know Nothing) Party forms (against slavery because it makes it harder for farmers to get jobs) - “King Cotton” - increase in railroads across nation - Freedman’s Bureau - backlash against resurgence of sharecropping
- Panic of 1873
#3:
Peopling /
  • More migration Westward (Polk’s aggressive expansionism)(Gold Rush and Manifest Destiny)
  • Particular increase in Irish and German immigrants
  • Assimilation of Native Americans
  • Mexican American War (1846-1848) - Jerry Brown and protest at Harper’s Ferry

#4:
Politics & Power /
  • Wilmot Proviso approved by House but not Senate (WOULD have banned slavery in any new territories acquired from Mexico) - Compromise of 1850 (preserves Union by appeasing pro- and anti-slavery groups) - loss of federal control due to expanding nation but government pressures peoples to move Westward - Dred Scott vs. Sanford Supreme Court decision allows slavery in U.S. territories
  • First meeting of the Republican party (1854)
  • Lincoln elected (1860)
  • Secession of Confederacy (1860)
  • Attack on Fort Sumter and official start to the Civil War (1861)
  • failure of the Critten Compromise (1960; would have protected slavery)
  • Formation of Confederate States of America (1861; with President Jefferson Davis)
  • Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
  • Wade Davis Bill (1863)
  • 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and Civil Rights Act (1866)
  • Lincoln re-elected (1864)
  • Lincoln Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (1865)
  • Compromise of 1877 (“End of Reconstruction”)

#5: America & the World /
  • At war with Mexico (Treaty of Guadalupe of Hidalgo, gives the U.S. extended territory into Latin America)

#6: Environment & Geography /
  • South seeks to acquire Cuba to expand slavery
  • Kansas Nebraska Act (end of Whig Party) - “Bleeding Kansas”
  • Compromise of 1850
  • California becomes a state

#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture /
  • “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • “Ain’t I a Woman?” Speech by Sojourner Truth
  • 10 Percent Plan proposed by Lincoln (1863)
  • “Reconstruction” (1867)

Period #6: 1865–1898

RECONSTRUCTION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

Timeline

  • (1865) Freedmen’s Bureau: assisted freed slaves
  • (1865) Lincoln assassinated
  • (1865) Thirteenth Amendment ratified: Emancipation Proclamation
  • (1865) KKK organized
  • (1866-8) Civil RIghts Act/Fourteenth Amendment ratified: all people born in US granted citizenship
  • (1869) Fifteenth Amendment ratified: all US citizens, regardless of race, granted voting rights
  • (1869) Transcontinental Railroad
  • (1872) Amnesty Act: removed voting and office-holding restrictions of former members of the Confederacy
  • (1873) Panic: economic downturn and panic
  • (1877) Compromise: Hayes elected, promised to withdraw troops in South, South granted money
  • (1877) Great Railroad Strike: railroad workers protested working conditions and wage cuts
  • (1882) Chinese Exclusion Act: banned Chinese immigration and citizenship for 10 years
  • (1886) Haymarket Square Riot: Chicago protested police-killing of rr workers
  • (1886) American Federation of Labor: trade unions composed of skilled workers
  • (1887) Dawes Act: allowed Indian reservations to be sold
  • (1889) Gospel of Wealth: published by Andrew Carnegie, duty of wealthy to care for poor
  • (1890) Sherman Anti-Trust Act: gov prevented monopolies
  • (1890) Wounded Knee Massacre: US troops killed 200 Sioux

Period #6: 1865–1898
RECONSTRUCTION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION
The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and urbanized society brought about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental, and cultural changes.
#1:
Identity /
  • America granted rights to more minority groups, but continued white superiority over all, specifically immigrants and African Americans
  • South began reintegration
  • (1865) Thirteenth Amendment ratified: Emancipation Proclamation
  • (1866-8) Civil Rights Act/Fourteenth Amendment ratified: all people born in US granted citizenship
  • (1872) Amnesty Act: removed voting and officeholding restrictions of former members of the Confederacy

#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology /
  • Major monopolies wiping out small business prompting labor unions
  • Factories, consumerism and materialism
  • (1873) Panic: economic downturn and panic
  • (1877) Great Railroad Strike: railroad workers protested working conditions and wage cuts

#3:
Peopling /
  • (1865) Freedmen’s Bureau: assisted freed slaves
  • With rising immigration rates, prejudice against other races rose dramatically
  • (1882) Chinese Exclusion Act: banned Chinese immigration and citizenship for 10 years
  • Muckrakers exposed the harsh living conditions following immigration
  • Gilded Age-- attracted migrants worldwide in search of prosperity. America shiny on the outside but corrupt on the inside (immobile social classes, stuck in poverty)

#4:
Politics & Power /
  • (1869) Fifteenth Amendment ratified: all US citizens, regardless of race, granted voting rights
  • (1890) Sherman Antitrust Act: gov prevented monopolies
  • Tycoons like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller grew industries like steel and oil

#5: America & the World /
  • America so focused on internal affairs and self prosperity, not concentrating heavily on foreign affairs

#6: Environment & Geography /
  • Transcontinental and Pacific West railroads expanded the dominance of America west, establishment and industry expanded
  • Urbanization and continued industrialization--specifically in the South

#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture /
  • (1865) KKK organized
  • (1889) Gospel of Wealth: published by Andrew Carnegie, duty of wealthy to care for poor, economic liberalism

#8: Literature /
  • (1890) How The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis
  • (1906) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
  • Exposure of horrors of immigration and industries
  • Muckrackers reported

Period #7
1890–1945
An increasingly diverse nation faced profound domestic and global challenges, debated the proper degree of government activism and sought to define its international role.
#1:
Identity / Increased diversity and many individual progressive groups pushing for their own heightened presence under the umbrella of American identity, such as women’s suffrage movement. With that change as well as the changes of many people immigrating from Europe led to controversy as some people questioned what it means to be American.
#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology / Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - led to reforms of factory safety
Industrial Reform Movements
New Deal agencies such as WPA, CWA, PWA created jobs for millions of unemployed Americans working on public works and infrastructure
Atomic Bomb
#3:
Peopling / The Great Migration - Many African Americans migrate from rural southern regions to urban northern cities.
National Origins Act - created immigration quotas, allowed more western european immigrants and fewer eastern europeans. Asians were essentially barred.
Westward Migration - the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains caused farmers to migrate to western states
Large immigration from Europe into American cities
#4:
Politics & Power / The Great Depression
The New Deal - FDR’s plan to fix the economy with a broad range of government agencies and programs
Japanese American Internment
Big questions about executive power during wartime
#5: America & the World / Spanish-American War
Open Door Policy
Roosevelt Corollary - extended the Monroe Doctrine in the Caribbean
World War I
Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points
Creation of the United Nations
Pearl Harbor/World War II
#6: Environment & Geography / Growth of protection of National Parks
New Deal agencies work on improving parks and infrastructure
Dust Bowl - caused by drought and over-farming
#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture / Harlem Renaissance
Women win voting rights
Roaring 20’s - a time of materialism and consumerism stemming from a period of strong economy
Red Scare - paranoia over communism
Prohibition
Nineteenth Amendment - granted suffrage to women
Muckrakers work to expose various industries
Bonus Army - Veterans protesting high levels of unemployment after WWI and demanding their service bonuses
Period #8
1945–1980
After World War II, the United States grappled with prosperity and unfamiliar international responsibilities while struggling to live up to its ideals.
#1:
Identity / Civil Right Movement (Brown vs. Board of Education, Montgomery Bus Boycotts, sit-ins, Freedom Rides, March on Washington, Black Panthers, etc)
Civil Rights Act
Rising of communism-McCarthyism
Womens Rights
Disabled Rights
Mexican-American Rights
Gay Liberation Movement
Indian-American Rights
#2 : Work, Exchange & Technology / Levittown--the rise of industrial housing
Affluent Society--post-war economic boom
#3:
Peopling / Immigration Act-abolished the national quota system
People moving from cities to suburban areas
Moving to the West for more job opportunities
#4: Politics & Power / Presidents: JFK, Johnson, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter
Great Society/War on Poverty (Lyndon Johnson)
Pentagon Papers released--revealed that Presidents knew more than they were saying about the Vietnam War going downhill
Watergate Scandal--Nixon’s associates caught spying on Democrats, Nixon resigns presidency
#5: America & The World / Policy of containment (George Kennan)
Domino Theory--all countries will fall to communism
Cold War
Putting up the Berlin Wall
Vietnam War
#6: Environment & Geography / NASA (moon landing)
Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)--as a response to oil spills & nuclear reactors
Resurgence of the environmental movement
#7: Ideas, Beliefs & Culture / Antiwar protests (student involvement at universities)
Counterculture
Hippies
Multiculturalism
Rise of conservatism (backlash against counterculture. Also political)